"You can direct someone to the river, but you can't make them drink it" - Unknown
-Or can you?
PREFACE: Throughout my student teaching I have met a variety of individuals including: near-retired teachers, teachers of the year, teachers who hate their jobs, teachers who love their jobs, students who love school, students who hate school, students who are just trying to make it through school, students who are happy working at McDonald's, students who will someday work at NASA, and many many more. I have realized that all students are motivated in different ways. And the notion of being able to motivate all of them to their fullest potential may border impossible. However, what I have found is that by NEVER giving up on a student you can be the catalyst that puts a students on the path to future success. Whether you're the tenured teacher of 15+ years, or the the physics-student teacher who teaches a student trigonometry after school because no one else will take the time with him; it only takes one person that believes in a student to set them in motion for future success.
My rationale for teaching began with the above stated quote. This quote was used by a mentor of mine in high school. Though my respect for this individual is of the highest, my unsettling distaste for his philosophy is of equal.
The idea that you can present a student with information is obvious. It does not take a great educator or even one with divine intellect to present an adolescent with something he/she may not know about science. However, the philosophy that a student reserves his/her own right to actually learn the material, I could not disagree with more.
It is the responsibility of this "new-wave" of teachers to MOTIVATE adolescents into becoming learners. Students only become "students" when they desire the knowledge of a teacher (or anyone for that matter). However, that first week of classes in September all of your "adolescents" are not necessarily your "students".
Many teachers believe it is their responsibility to maintain order in the classroom, present new information to students, and do adequate hands-on activities to show them about implications. Again I agree with all but the latter. The idea of presenting students with hands-on activities is NOT entirely to show them about the implications of science and how it relates to future careers (blah blah blah)..
~Side note: when I was in 11th and 12th grade the last thing on my mind was a future career. The only thing i cared about was my family, friends, and what motivated me to simply enjoy my life. (And >95% of students I have seen show the same behavior)
As I was saying, the idea of hands-on activities are to MOTIVATE students to require more learning. You can motivate a student to study for a test by telling him/her that the test decides whether they are going to pass or fail. However, this is more like pseudo-motivation. To motivate a football player to learn about projectile motion by showing him that throwing a ball at a 30 degree and 60 degree angle yields the same result [in a vacuum of course, thanks Paul!] raises : question, inquiry, and self-experimentation. Then when you explain to him/her that throwing the football at 45 degrees yields the longest possible throw (in a vacuum of course, thanks Paul!) you improve his game. Which subsequently leads to him telling his peers how he improved his throwing distance, and possibly his parents, etc.
Every student is different, and it is the responsibility of the teacher to learn the differences of all of his/her students. Finding a way to motivate a classroom is next to impossible. However, finding a way to motivate 30 individuals is a masterpiece like no other.
David Kenahan
Teaching Rationale
"You can direct someone to the river, but you can't make them drink it" - Unknown
-Or can you?
PREFACE: Throughout my student teaching I have met a variety of individuals including: near-retired teachers, teachers of the year, teachers who hate their jobs, teachers who love their jobs, students who love school, students who hate school, students who are just trying to make it through school, students who are happy working at McDonald's, students who will someday work at NASA, and many many more. I have realized that all students are motivated in different ways. And the notion of being able to motivate all of them to their fullest potential may border impossible. However, what I have found is that by NEVER giving up on a student you can be the catalyst that puts a students on the path to future success. Whether you're the tenured teacher of 15+ years, or the the physics-student teacher who teaches a student trigonometry after school because no one else will take the time with him; it only takes one person that believes in a student to set them in motion for future success.
My rationale for teaching began with the above stated quote. This quote was used by a mentor of mine in high school. Though my respect for this individual is of the highest, my unsettling distaste for his philosophy is of equal.
The idea that you can present a student with information is obvious. It does not take a great educator or even one with divine intellect to present an adolescent with something he/she may not know about science. However, the philosophy that a student reserves his/her own right to actually learn the material, I could not disagree with more.
It is the responsibility of this "new-wave" of teachers to MOTIVATE adolescents into becoming learners. Students only become "students" when they desire the knowledge of a teacher (or anyone for that matter). However, that first week of classes in September all of your "adolescents" are not necessarily your "students".
Many teachers believe it is their responsibility to maintain order in the classroom, present new information to students, and do adequate hands-on activities to show them about implications. Again I agree with all but the latter. The idea of presenting students with hands-on activities is NOT entirely to show them about the implications of science and how it relates to future careers (blah blah blah)..
~Side note: when I was in 11th and 12th grade the last thing on my mind was a future career. The only thing i cared about was my family, friends, and what motivated me to simply enjoy my life. (And >95% of students I have seen show the same behavior)
As I was saying, the idea of hands-on activities are to MOTIVATE students to require more learning. You can motivate a student to study for a test by telling him/her that the test decides whether they are going to pass or fail. However, this is more like pseudo-motivation. To motivate a football player to learn about projectile motion by showing him that throwing a ball at a 30 degree and 60 degree angle yields the same result [in a vacuum of course, thanks Paul!] raises : question, inquiry, and self-experimentation. Then when you explain to him/her that throwing the football at 45 degrees yields the longest possible throw (in a vacuum of course, thanks Paul!) you improve his game. Which subsequently leads to him telling his peers how he improved his throwing distance, and possibly his parents, etc.
Every student is different, and it is the responsibility of the teacher to learn the differences of all of his/her students. Finding a way to motivate a classroom is next to impossible. However, finding a way to motivate 30 individuals is a masterpiece like no other.
POSTFACE: